By Cai U. Ordinario & Mary Grace Padin
THE Philippines could buy an additional 500,000 metric tons (MT) of imported rice this year as El Niño continues to wreak havoc on rice-growing areas, the National Food Authority (NFA) said on Tuesday.
NFA Administrator Renan B. Dalisay said his agency has already been granted a standby authority to import an additional 500,000 MT for this year.
“The Philippines is still not self-sufficient in rice, so I cannot say that we will no longer import this year. The country has been importing 1.5 million to 1.7 million metric tons [MMT] of rice annually,” Dalisay told reporters on the sidelines of a news briefing held in Pasig City on Tuesday.
He said the government wants to ensure that the arrival of imports will not cause farm-gate prices of paddy rice to decline drastically and cause farmers to incur losses.
Dalisay added that the NFA council may come up with a decision on rice importation as early as this month or as late as next semester.
Using the standby authority of the NFA to import 500,000 MT would be the fastest way to ensure ample rice supply and stable prices, especially during the lean months, he said.
The government imported additional rice to prepare for the ill effects of El Niño. The El Niño Task Force recommended the importation of an additional 500,000 MT of rice in 2015, and 800,000 MT in the first semester of 2016.
However, due to the rains and early planting interventions in the last quarter of 2015, the government has held off on its decision to import more rice.
The NFA purchased the 500,000 MT of imported rice intended for 2016 in September last year via the government-to-government scheme. Vietnam and Thailand bagged the contract to supply imported rice to the Philippines.
The government has also allowed the private sector to import 505,627.90 MT of rice under the minimum-access volume scheme of the World Trade Organization.
El Niño caused paddy-rice output last year to decline by 4.31 percent to 18.15 MMT, from 18.97 MMT posted in 2014, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA also said unmilled rice production in the first half of 2016 could go down by 1.48 percent to 8.20 MMT, from 8.32 MMT posted in the same period last year.